Watermelon Daiquiris and Johnny Cash

Today we rented a scooter and headed to Gavathas beach, which was almost completely empty. It felt a bit like Cunda Island - wild and natural, no one in sight if you know where to go. Lesvos' beaches have clear water, but almost all of them are pebbled, which is quite annoying, but still doesn't detract from its charm. On the way back we ate at the Lucky Horseshoe (we were put off by the name but convinced by the chalkboard menu) where I tasted some of the best fish I've had North of the Andamans.

Molyvos town was super quiet during the day (all shops close between 2 and 5pm) but was buzzing by 8pm. Surprisingly though, it wasn't grating, as it can be in some vacation spots. Everyone was dressed beautifully and and the vibe was more 'relax and live it up' rather than 'stag weekend binge'. It seemed like a quieter version of the glitzy South of France, without the price tag. We indulged in 4 Eu watermelon daiquiris at a bar overlooking the harbour and listened to covers of Johnny Cash. Total win. I really didn't want to leave, but for the fact that we have a flight out of Istanbul in a couple of days.



Gavatha Beach

Molivos town

Interesting fact - Lesvos was ruled by Turks for centuries after the Byzantines until it was "liberated" by the Greeks in 1912. After an unspectacular but amusing night in the de facto capital city of Mytilini, we took a morning bus to Molyvos (also called Mythimna), a resort-y town on the North coast of the island. The 2 hour journey allowed us to take in some spectacular views of the scenery - olive groves, charred mountainside, grassy knolls, impressive rock formations. We'd tried to book a place to stay, but all the guesthouse websites we found only had reservation/inquiry places, which isn't really helpful if you want to know nightly rates. Nevertheless, we sent off a few emails, and since we failed to receive any responses we had no choice but to wing it. On arrival though, our bus was greeted by a lady from the local tourism office, who ushered us into her airconditioned office, called around, and arranged accommodation for everyone. 10 points to Molivos just for that! Our spartan but clean room had a tiny kitchen and a balcony with a sea and castle view (double whammy!). We were really excited to watch the sun set over the sea with a bottle of wine and a gentle breeze... but as soon as we'd unpacked a nice Minnesotan couple from our bus ride came up to ask us if we would please switch rooms with them. Apparently it was the girlfriend's birthday and she was in tears over the fact that we had managed to snag the last room with a balcony in town. Of course we switched rooms, had a pleasant lunch with them, then saw them later on at the beach strumming a ukulele (really?). P notes that he would give them much more credit if the birthday was not actually real. He's still not convinced.


The view from our balcony


Figs drying in the sun

On to Greece

After a long day wandering around and nearly getting sunstroke we took the 6 pm ferry from Ayvalik to Mytilini. As always, we'd planned on finding a place for the night on arrival, but by the time we arrived all of the hotels and pensions appeared to be full. Unwilling to shell out 100 Euros for one night, we looked around for 'rooms to rent' signs and pensions. We asked around in shops and quizzed random passers by, but no one seemed to know anything and despite exploring the whole town, we only saw a few places, all of which were fully booked for the night. After 2 hours of walking around with heavy bags we finally found a place that had a free room. Instead of looking any further, we gave up and settled on the Porto Lesvos 2, which smelled like stale bread and cigarettes and looked like it hadn't been redecorated since Nixon was in office. Our spirits were still up from managing to find a place without cracking under pressure and the weight of our luggage, so we went out for a couple of drinks. Mytilini seems like it gets its fair share of tourists, though most are probably just passing through to other, better parts of the island. The harbour was beautiful at night, and everyone looked super chic, making us feel pretty glamorous.